Fantastic Beasts and Why We Avoid Them
by Mikiri's Revenge
Summary: Professor Coran and his assistant Allura host a lesson on magical creatures in hopes to stave off possible incidents. Their magical book helps the lesson stick. ...No Lance, you cannot pet a Kelpie. (posted on AO3)


Coran opened the door and smiled down at his array of students before ushering them inside, for it wouldn't do if the neighbors got suspicious of why he had an array of children aged six to ten visiting on a regular basis. He lead them into the study room, empty of their normal lesson supplies except for Allura sitting on the floor with a giant book in front of her.

Lance was the most curious, and the most attached to Allura, so with no prompting at all he ran across the room and plopped down next to her, dragging Hunk behind him, "Ms. Allura, Ms. Allura, what are we learning about today?"

Allura smiled down at Lance while the others settled down into a circle around the book, Coran sitting across from her, "Well, today I thought would be a good day to teach all of you young witches and wizards about the special creatures only we can see."

Pidge, sitting bracketed between Keith and Shiro across from Hunk, leaned across Keith's lap, trying to reach the book, "I want to see! Magical creatures all have special powers and things that they can do!"

"Yes Pidge, that is what we're doing today. But please, sit back, the book projects. I promise you will be able to see just fine," Allura soothed as Shiro grabbed Pidge's hand to keep her in place. Allura smiled at the pair before turning back to the book and opening to a page near the beginning, "Today we will be starting with griffins. Does anyone know anything about griffins?"

Lance waved his hand around, "Griffins are like when you mash a lion and an eagle together. They can see really well and they guard things!"

Allura smiled down at Lance as the book began to project a picture of a griffin in flight, "That's correct. Also, according to legend, they lay golden eggs and mate for life, but no one's seen a griffin nest in ages because they're very protective."

Allura's smile grew as she saw all of the kids shuffle a bit closer to the book, looking entranced by the flying griffin. Lance shifted closer and looked up at Allura with puppy dog eyes, "Can I turn the page for the next one?"

How could Allura deny such a face and desire for knowledge? She nodded and Lance turned the page to the next creature. The book began to project a harpy, a half human-half bird creature, but as Allura looked around she realized no one seemed to recognize it, "Does anyone know this creature?"

Lance frowned, scooting nearer still to look more closely; Hunk followed Lances example and scooted over until he was almost on top of Lance. Pidge was leaning over Keith again, but the older boy didn't seem bothered by it. Shiro was the only one who seemed composed, even if his unwavering gaze indicated his interest, and slowly, he said, "I think it's a harpy. They represent wind? And I think they take people they don't like and food they do like."

Keith looked more interested than he had been and turned to Allura and asked, "Really? They're wind spirits?"

"Essentially," Allura explained, "They're wind spirits, but they tend to be very cruel. They take pleasure in hurting people so you want to avoid them. They follow a greater spirit and do his work and you don't want to interfere so it's best to leave if you see them. Okay?" She looked down to her group of students who all nodded seriously. She looked across at Coran, who seemed rather amused at being forgotten by his students and assistant; he shooed her back to watching the kids when he noticed her staring.

Lance finally moved over and sat directly in front of the book and turned the next page for her. The next animal was one of her favorites, the phoenix, which burst into appearance in a flurry of feathers and fire over the book. She smiled as she heard the awed murmurs from her students and asked, "Does anyone know what this is?"

"It's a phoenix! They can't die, well they do, but they come back! They're fire colored and poof into fire before they come back," Pidge explained excitedly, bouncing in her spot.

"That's correct. Lance, do you want to turn the page to the next one?" Allura asked, indicating the book. The boy turned the page, still staring at the phoenix in silent awe.

A beautiful holographic dragon appeared over the book, flying and releasing bolts of lightning and rain everywhere. Keith slid out from under Pidge to come sit next to Lance, looking awed, gaze entirely focused on the dragon. Allura knew that if there was any creature that would get Keith's attention this was it. Keith let out a breathy whisper, "Dragons."

"That's right, dragons. Do you know anything about them, Keith?" Allura prompted him gently.

"They control the weather, represent moving bodies of water. They have horns, and are small and have only about a hundred scales. They make things flood when they're angry." Keith may have been a fire aligned witch, but he knew to respect things with great power over his opposing element.

"Correctomundo number four. I see you have read up on them before?" Coran asked, causing Keith to start and turn around to look at the older witch.

"Yeah, all the popular media talk about the fire ones, but all the books I could find about real ones talk about these ones," Keith explained, turning back to the hologram.

Coran ran his fingers over his mustache. "Yes, it was a rather clever distraction to popularize the western style of dragons, it helps protect the dragons and in doing so protect humans from angering the dragons," Coran explained before gesturing at Lance, "Now turn the page my boy, next is one of my favorites even if it's more of a category than a specific species."

Lance turned to the next page, and watched as a bunch of creatures came marching out of the book, small people with wings, so tiny they seemed no more than dots, small tiny men in strange clothes, several taller bizarrely beautiful people all came out of the book and began wandering around. Pidge finally escaped Shiro's hold and came and plopped down next to Keith, leaning down to look at the faeries floating around. Hunk flopped down on his stomach and army crawled to look at the other creatures mulling around the outside edge of the book, leaning against Lance. Allura finally decided to explain, "These are fae; as Coran said they are more of a category than a species. The tiny ones are faeries, then the others include brownies, goblins, pookah, elves, nyphs, tree spirits, and many many others."

"Why are we learning about them all together then?" Lance asked, pouting as he tried to poke one of the holograms.

"Well," Coran started, taking on his voice for storytelling, "All fae follow some of the same rules. They can all speak to humans, they can all tell when you are lying, in general they hate to be indebted to people, and are far more aware of the natural world. Many of them can shapeshift, so we teach you more about them when you're older and more able to identify false forms. Though, I do know a fun story of a playful pookah."

Shiro looked up at Coran curiously, "A pookah?"

"Yes! Once I ran across one while, ahem, intoxicated while it was in a horse form. I got upon its back and it went riding through town, jumping over barrels, riding in circles and generally causing quite a commotion." Coran smiled at the memory, "Allura's father Alfor bailed me out of jail when the locals thought it was because I was intoxicated since they didn't know it was a pookah."

"Ah, so that's how you met father, I had been wondering." Allura quirked an eyebrow at Coran before turning her attention back to the book, "Shiro, why don't you come join us and turn the next page?"

"Okay," Shiro came over and maneuvered carefully to sit between Pidge and Keith so he was almost at the center of the book. He reached over carefully, trying not to disturb the holographic animals and people flying and wandering around, and turned to the next page. A black horse-like creature with seaweed in its mane and backward hooves came bursting out of the book to join the creatures flying around.

Lance leaned over to look at it closer, squishing Keith into Shiro's side in his attempts to get even closer, "Is that a kelpie? They look so cool! I wanna ride one!"

"Oh no you don't, lad, kelpies are bad news." Coran came over and knelt next to the group to ruffle Lance's hair, "Kelpies take anyone who rides them deep into the depths of the nearest body of water to eat them. People who ride them are never seen or heard from again, so, my dear boy, resist the temptation."

Lance pouted and looked up at Coran, "But I can swim really, really well!"

"Doesn't matter to a kelpie, so promise me to stay away from them, my boy?" Coran chided, staring at Lance seriously.

"Fiiiiine, I won't ride a kelpie." Lance pouted and turned to the next page unprompted. A holographic unicorn burst into the air above the book, causing Pidge to clap happily and Shiro to get up on his knees to look closer.

"They're so pretty. I wonder if we'll ever get to see one for real," Shiro whispered, staring at the majestic animal.

Hunk frowned and leaned up more, squishing into Keith even further, "I dunno, I heard they were mean to everyone that wasn't a girl. Like, stabbing you with their horn mean."

Shiro looked down at Hunk, "Really? I thought they were nice and cured people's illnesses."

Hunk wiggled his hand back and forth in a kinda-sorta gesture, "Last I heard their horns could heal people and prevent poison, but to get one you had to kill the unicorn and the unicorns didn't like it so they were angry, but not at girls for some reason?"

"So, Pidge could pet one but we couldn't? That's not fair," Lance pouted, slumping over onto Keith and Hunk.

Keith, tired of being squished, tried to shove everyone off, "Get off of me! I want to see too!"

Allura discreetly stood and moved around the book and her pile of squabbling students over to where Coran was standing at the doorway, "Think we can leave them alone long enough to get hot chocolate?"

Coran quietly opened the door, "Well, the book is childproof even if the creatures it teaches about are not. Let's leave them to discovering for a bit, then we'll answer questions over cocoa."

And with that the pair left, quietly closing the door behind them as another creature burst into holographic existence over the book and the young witches examined it in awe.

* * *

AN: This is my contribution to the Tiny Adventure's Zine! My partner was Radishcake and he was amazing to work with! Hope you like it!


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